Samuel Morse

Samuel F. B. Morse

1791 (Charlestown, Mass.) – 1872 (New York)

Morse attended Silliman’s lectures as a student at Yale, and got to know him. He studied painting with Allston then went to England with him, met Coleridge and Haydon soon after, and was helped as a painter by West. Thorvaldsen was a friend in Rome, while Cooper, a longtime friend, appeared in his painting ‘The Gallery of the Louvre.’ Vail, Gale, Henry and Draper all helped Morse develop his telegraph, Henry disputing his rights as inventor. He painted his distant cousin Whitney and neighbour Webster, met Daguerre in Paris, and took on Brady as an apprentice. Stuart, Wilberforce and Agassiz were all correspondents.